“ALISON COTTON live at Tor Beers, The Golden Lion, Todmorden, Sunday 15 December, 2019: an audience recording by Francis Comyn.”
Man, Todmorden sounds like the place to be, lately.
WARREN ELLIS LTD Articles.
I had to go into Twitter on the web to fetch a DM – trying to keep the phone out of my hands today, as it’s very much a keyboard/desk day here — and got the above message. I’m far from a regular Twitter user any more, but I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Is something big happening today? I don’t even run Tweetdeck on the big screen these days.
Sorting out the afternoon listening.
Already annotated and processed a deal memo, answered an acquaintance’s questions for a book, and cleared email down to inbox 17. A reasonable facsimile of hitting the ground running.
Big day today. Just about to go into HEAVEN’S FOREST design notes.
I was asked yesterday if I’d lost weight. I don’t see how, I replied, I’ve been eating all kinds of crap and not getting any exercise. Later that day, I sat down to figure out why I feel hungry and shitty so much lately, beyond the exhaustion symptoms. And realised: I get up around 10am, but haven’t been eating until after 1pm. And I tend to grab something small around 9pm to get me through the rest of the night’s work. Which means I’ve accidentally somehow defaulted to an eight-hour feeding window. So I went to google, and it said, “16/8 intermittent fasting may also cause short-term negative side effects when you’re first getting started, such as hunger, weakness and fatigue… and digestive problems.” HI, HELLO, IT ME
So job one today is writing a meal plan, because clearly I’ve slid all the way into lockdown psychosis. Or I’m an idiot. Take your pick. It can be both.
“DISK 1 is lab-tested and proven as suitable for humans of all ages, sexes and backgrounds. DISK 1 is lab-tested and proven to activate and improve endogenous rhythms as well as decrease fatigue within users after two weeks of use.
“SLEEP CENTER is a global scientific company specializing in the field of cognitive audio during sleep. SLEEP CENTER uses advanced research methods to create the latest in audio-induced relaxation techniques.”
Wanted to capture some of the eerily perfect blue we have today, and just managed it before the icy gales currently battering the coast almost ripped the phone out of my cold fingers.
Managed a 15 minute walk that was exhausting due to said gales, and which used up every available calorie in my body. I’m a wreck — according to my watch, my resting heart rate today indicates that I should have died an hour ago — and I’m afraid I’m mostly not looking at email and messages today, as I need to construct the skeleton of an eight page piece I have to deliver Monday, which is the same day I have a phone interview with EW scheduled and the day I expect news on the things that should, in theory, constitute the next six months of my work life. So, no pressure, right?
I am constantly hungry and run out of energy very quickly. I probably should have put more time into recovery. But I figure I only have to dredge up 48 hours more runtime. In the meantime, despite that I’m having a small crash every few hours, life is generally peaceful.
Apparently we have a blocking high locking in, so I can probably look forward to high winds for days (again), which is presumably great news for a primarily airborne virus hahaha oh god
Back to work. Look at that blue!
SO I haven’t updated Downcast on the office iPad for a few weeks, it seems. I’m into heavy reading and research and didn’t want to think about soundtracking so I thought, sling up the podcast app, because I subscribe to a lot of music podcasts.
I also walk every day, which is often when I listen to them (Downcast on the iPad syncs with Downcast on the iPhone). But, of course, I’m not walking every day any more, not sitting outside bars with a glass of wine listening to them, wandering the food hall listening to them. Hence, when I opened Downcast on the iPad, thinking, oh, it’s syncing, this won’t take long…. three and a half gig. A weird reminder of lockdown’s impact on my days.
I’ve really got to get outside for a walk tomorrow. This shit is wrecking my body now, and I have three and a half gigs of music to listen to.
Heard this for the first time a few weeks ago. Released in 2010. Hunted down a CD copy on Discogs. Give it a listen on Bandcamp.
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“Fully immersive electronic music by US composer Maggi Payne, inspired by the arctic winds. Maggi Payne’s sound worlds invite the listeners to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile and visible.
“The music is based on location recordings, with each sound carefully selected for its potential—its slow unfolding revealing delicate intricacies—and its inherent spatialization architecting and sculpting the aural space where multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist. With good speakers, some space in your schedule, and a mind-body continuum willing to resonate with Payne’s electroacoustic journey, but then it will take you to places that other music can’t reach.
“From the sounds of dry ice, space transmissions, BART trains, and poor plumbing she immerses the listener in a world strangely unfamiliar.”
Hello from PANDEMIC-CAM-20. After a full-bore week of doing many Disaster Capitalisms, I think I’m all set for the immediate future. Which is probably why I slept nine and a half hours last night, so absurdly deeply that there was no perceptual gap between closing my eyes and opening them to my 10.25am alarm.
I am, as you can tell, entirely fried and not really ready for another three weeks of lockdown. Coffee and some actual writing, I think.
I believe this now completes my collection of the available work of Forndom on CD.
Give them a listen for yourself at forndom.bandcamp.com.
“The culture, history, traditions, and melancholic landscapes of the rural parts of central Sweden is the main elements within the musical universe of Forndom.”
I remember sitting in front of the VCR with a brand new tape in hand, getting ready to record this off its BBC 2 transmission. Which might have been its only transmission? Directed by Alex Cox, featuring Peter Boyle giving every appearance of enjoying the hell out of himself, and an intense young Christopher Eccleston. An approach very strongly inflected by European and South American comics, in my memory, and also a perverse bit of the Warren Beatty DICK TRACY film. I remember being one of the few people genuinely delighted by this presentation, and when I tripped over a copy of a DVD release online the other day, I knew I had to have it.
Alex Cox, wherever you are, thank you for this.
DEATH AND THE COMPASS (UK) (US)